Blog archive: October 2008

Baking is a dying art. But making your own bread and cakes is sociable, satisfying – and surprisingly simple. Here, Jonathan Brown shares his story about a wonderful bakery in England named Betty's Craft Bakery. There is more than an hour to go until dawn and the rest of the world may be safely slumbering in its bed but I'm putting on a hair net and slipping into my baker's whites. As someone whose previous forays into the world of flour and yeast have ended up with little to show other than something resembling a crispy cowpat, and a kitchen that looks like the aftermath of a shoot up in a Medellin cocaine factory, I'm approaching the day ahead with trepidation. Arriving at Betty's Craft Bakery, a vast Swiss chalet on an industrial estate near Harrogate in Yorkshire, England - the design is a tribute to the company's founding father the confectioner-entrepreneur Fritz Butzer – the first thing I learn is that the real bakers here have already been hard at work for several hours, turning out hundreds of hot loaves, fresh cakes and some impossibly ornate pastries. For me, the object of today's lesson is to somehow overcome the irrational fear that bubbles up any time I reach for the dried fruit or desiccated coconut. Not that I mind cooking, far from it. Like most modern-day metrosexual men I pride myself on the fact that I can knock up a court bouillon and poach a Hebridean wild turbot with the best of them. But when it comes to folding together a bowl of cake mix, I confess I'm far more Mr Bean than Mr Kipling. But it seems I am not alone. You may or may not be aware but it is UK National Baking Week – seven days of events designed to convince people like me that not only is making your own cakes and bread fun, it is also healthy and cheap – the perfect answer for those looking for good wholesome food in these economically straitened times. It is estimated that half a century ago 90% of households would bake at least once a week. Today it is less than half that. According to celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager, who is the public face of this industry-backed campaign, the retreat from the range is a profound loss. "People have been persuaded by the food manufacturers and the supermarkets that they don't have the time and that they are far too busy to bake and must buy convenience food instead. They think baked food is fattening and unhealthy but it is the complete opposite of that. You need to make time, get the children involved – baking is very social – everything they say against it is wrong and I feel that very strongly," she says. Having watched Hell's Kitchen maybe once too often, I am expecting the atmosphere in the craft bakery to be a little intimidating. The reality could not be more different. While people are busy and clearly working extremely hard, relations are highly cordial. Betty's commands a devoted loyalty from its staff. Many arrive fresh-faced from college, before honing their craft here their entire careers. It is a father to son, mother to daughter kind of place. You will even find spouses working alongside each other. Here is perhaps evidence of the much vaunted psychological benefits attributed to baking. It is claimed that the mere process of kneading dough can expunge stress from the system. The smell of a freshly-baked cake percolating through a house is enough to lift even the blackest of moods while the process of moulding and shaping taps into our inner creativity. Joining the bread station – the 11 bakers here have more than 150 years service between them – I am helping make the last batch of the day. But far from reaping any immediate existential dividends from fashioning the olive and sun-dried tomato rolls bound for the famous tea rooms across God's own county, I am more concerned about the integrity of my dough matrix and keeping the embryonic loaflets the right way up. Perhaps I am over worrying. The bakery motto is "variation is a sign that craftsmen are in control". Variation – yes, control – maybe not yet. It takes up to five years of kneading and mixing before someone can call themselves a master baker. I am not